


The Six Million Dollar Question

by Ellana17



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, Humor, M/M, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Season/Series 04
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:22:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 15,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26422579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellana17/pseuds/Ellana17
Summary: “Stiles…” Scott whispered. “Is that…”“My name on the list? Yes,” Stiles answered.While Derek has to deal with becoming more and more human, Stiles has to deal with becoming more than that.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Lydia Martin & Stiles Stilinski
Comments: 25
Kudos: 419





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I like my Stiles 100% human but I had a lot of fun playing around with the idea of Stiles’s name somehow ending up on the Deadpool during season 4.
> 
> This takes place right after 4x06 The Orphans and 4x07 Weaponized but the Malia/Stiles relationship never made it to season 4.

PROLOGUE

Stiles dashed through the corridor to Kira’s locker.

“I need to know your zodiac sign,” Stiles told his friend without preamble.

Kira turned around slowly. “Why do you need to know my zodiac sign?” she asked.

“I’m trying to save your life here, don’t look at me like that,” Stiles told her.

“Like what?”

“Like I’ve just escaped the loony bin. Which I didn’t by the way,” he reminded her. “I got discharged.”

Kira sighed, took a couple books from her locker and shut the door. “Sagittarius,” she told him finally.

Stiles nodded, already thinking fast. “Wait, do I need to use Japanese zodiac instead?” he asked her suddenly, his eyes going wide. “Shit, I don’t know anything about that!”

He fished his phone out of his pocket and turned around, typing fast.

“I was born in New York!” Kira yelled after him, smiling sheepishly when people turned around to stare at her.

A FEW DAYS EARLIER

Stiles tried to ignore his growing panic as Lydia typed the third cypher key.

Derek.

Now was not the time to panic, Stiles reminded himself. They had a whole list of people who were going to die soon or were already dead. But god, Stiles had no doubt Lydia typing Derek’s name was going to fuel his nightmares for a while.

The code started to turn into names and numbers as Stiles stared at the screen, seeing Malia’s and Liam’s names. God, they were so screwed.

“Stiles…” Lydia whispered. “Look.”

MIECZYSLAW “STILES” STILINSKI 6

“No,” Stiles whispered, staring in horror at the screen. “No, that’s not possible.”

There was no way Stiles’s name was on that list.

“No, no, no. I’m human, Lydia,” he said, turning to his friend with wide eyes. “It’s gone, we got rid of the Nogitsune. Please, tell me we got rid of it,” he begged.

Lydia wrapped her arms around him. “We did,” she told him softly. “I know we did. Which means that it’s something else. We just need to find out what.”


	2. Chapter 2

As Stiles listened to Deaton’s explanation about finding the cure to the virus, he realized just how close his friends had been to dying.

“So what you’re saying is that we were lucky Derek remembered that tea,” he said. Deaton only nodded and Stiles and Scott shared a look. “It was right in front of my eyes,” Stiles added. “I should have known what it was.”

“You couldn’t have known,” Deaton told him reasonably.

“Maybe I should have,” he mumbled, dropping his gaze to the floor. “Look,” he added nervously. “There’s something you both need to know. It’ll be easier if I just show you,” he said, digging a ripped piece of paper from his jean pocket and handing it to Deaton.

Deaton glanced between the small piece of paper in his hands and Stiles’ face. As usual, Stiles could not read the man’s emotions and that somehow made the situation even worse. Scott looked over Deaton’s shoulder and his eyes got as wide as saucers.

“Stiles…” his friend whispered. “Is that…”

“My name on the list? Yes,” Stiles answered.

“But why didn’t you tell me?” Scott asked.

“I freaked out, Scott. Can you really blame me? When I saw my name on the list I just freaked. Then I ripped it in two because I didn’t know how to deal with it.”

“Who else knows about this?” Deaton asked, waving the piece of paper.

Stiles shrugged. “Everybody with a copy of the list I guess, and Lydia.”

“You told Lydia and not me?” Scott asked him reproachfully.

“Dude, Lydia was the reason we found the third cypher key. She saw my name before I did.”

“God, Stiles,” Scott said quietly. “You’re worth six million dollars?”

Stiles nodded. “I need to know,” he told Deaton. “Why am I on the list? Once, you told me I had a spark but I thought that was all there was to it. It was just a fluke.”

“Stiles, if your name is on the list…” Scott started.

“I know what it means, Scott. It means I’m not human.” He turned to Deaton. “So, does it mean I’m like you?” Stiles asked.

Deaton shook his head. “Druids can yield certain forms of magic but they’re still humans, Stiles. That’s why my name is not on the list.”

Stiles nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense. But what does it mean for me?”

Deaton looked at him gravely. “It means you’re more powerful that we thought, Stiles. And also less human.”

“You need to tell me everything you know,” he told Deaton. “If people are going to try to _kill_ me, I need to know exactly why and I need to learn how to defend myself.”

Scott glanced at his friend. “I won’t let anything happen to you, Stiles, I swear.”

“I know, Scotty, but you can’t protect everyone.” Then he turned to Deaton. “So what do you say?”

Deaton sighed. “I’ll do some research, ask around, but I get the feeling you won’t like the answer.”

Stiles frowned. “What? Why? Do you know what I am?”

“Come back tomorrow evening, we’ll talk about it then.” He sighed. “Stiles, Scott, go back home and be careful.”

Stiles rolled his eyes. “Easy for you to say,” he mumbled before following Scott outside.

Scott stopped near Stiles’s Jeep. “Look, Stiles…”

“I know what you’re going to say, Scott. I should have told you, I’m sorry.”

“No, that’s not it. I’m the one who’s sorry. We’ll get to the bottom of this, okay? Nothing’s going to happen to you.”

“It already did, Scott. It already did.”


	3. Chapter 3

Stiles felt like dying as he watched the clock on the wall like a hawk. Finally, when the last bell rang, he rushed out of the classroom and to his car in a daze.

“Do you want me to come with you?” Scott asked.

Stiles shook his head. “It’s fine, Scott, I think I can handle talking to Deaton on my own.”

Scott nodded slowly and Stiles got inside the car. He might have broken a few traffic laws getting to the clinic and practically ran to the door. Opening the back door, he came face to face with Derek.

Stiles froze. “Hey, Big Guy. What are you doing here?”

“Stiles,” Derek greeted, face closed off.

Stiles turned his head towards the door when Deaton walked in. “Derek, I- Stiles? You’re early.”

“Yeah, well, I was kind of in a hurry,” he simply said.

Deaton nodded. “Derek, I’ll call you as soon as I have news,” he told the werewolf.

Derek nodded. Then, glancing at Stiles, he asked, “What is he doing here?”

Stiles glared. “That’s not any of your business,” he said curtly.

Shit. His emotions had been all over the place today and seeing Derek was doing nothing to keep him calm.

Derek looked at him, more curious than angry. “Are you okay?”

“Depends on your definition of okay, I guess,” Stiles mumbled. “I’m fine,” he said when he caught sight of Derek’s frown. “I just need to talk to Deaton, alone.”

Derek glanced back and forth between the two men. “Alright,” he said. Then, turning to Deaton, he added, “Call me as soon as you have news.”

Deaton nodded before Derek turned around and left.

“What was that all about?” Stiles asked Deaton.

“It’s not my place to tell. Derek is entitled to his privacy just like you are to yours.”

Stiles rolled his eyes. “So, did you learn anything about what’s going on with me or what?”

Deaton nodded. “Take a sit,” he said, gesturing in the direction of a stool. “I need to explain a few things to you, things I should have told you that first time you used mountain ash. People can use… energy on different levels. Ordinary people can use mountain ash because the energy comes from the ash, not the person. People have been calling this energy ‘magic’ for centuries but this all comes down to the energy surrounding us and the energy within ourselves. Some people can learn to tap into the energy around them, like druids do. But they have to learn and they need to draw energy from something else.”

Deaton paused, and Stiles nodded.

“Okay, but you said druids wouldn’t be on the Deadpool because they are humans.”

“And that’s true. Everyone can learn how to yield magic, there’s no prerequisite other than having an open mind. But sometimes people are able to tap into their _own_ energy because they _are_ magic. Those people are not strictly humans and could as such have their name on the list.”

Stiles stared at the vet, his mouth hanging open. “Wait, wait, are you telling me that I have _magic_?” Stiles scoffed.

“I’m telling you that you _are_ magic, Stiles. I should have sensed it before and for that I’m sorry, but in my defense I’ve only ever met one other person like you before. I can feel the energy radiating from you. It’s stronger than in humans but less strong than in werewolves.”

Stiles stared at him. “That’s freaky, you know that, right?” was all he could say. “So what do I do?”

“It’s up to you, Stiles.”

“Could I… ignore it? I’ve been ignoring it for most of my life anyway, right?”

Deaton nodded slowly. “You could ignore it. But I would advise against it. Now that you are aware of it, that much untapped energy could be harder to control and potentially dangerous. You could get hurt or hurt the people around you.”

“But I don’t _want_ it,” Stiles told him.

“Stiles…”

“No, you don’t get it! You have no idea what I’ve been through, what it was like to have _him_ taking control over me. I don’t want this energy – or whatever you call it – to take over and _control_ me. I can’t go through that again.”

Deaton sighed and gently put his hand on Stiles’s shoulder. “Stiles, the Nogitsune was a foreign force, it was possessing you. Your energy – call it your magic if you will – is part of you. It always has been part of you even when you weren’t aware of it. You have nothing to fear from it.”

Stiles sighed and briefly closed his eyes. “So if I’ve always had it, where does it come from? How did I get it in the first place?”

“Well,” Deaton started, looking hesitant. “This ability is usually inherited.”

God, that meant someone had passed it down to him?

“My dad is going to freak,” was all he said.

The next day at school, Scott grabbed Stiles by the arm and rushed him into an empty classroom.

“So what did Deaton say?” he asked.

“He said I have magic and I probably inherited it from my family.”

Scott laughed. “Dude, come on, what did he say?”

“I’m serious Scott. Well, his exact words were ‘untapped energy’ – whatever the hell that means – but yeah, basically I have magic.”

“Dude!”

“I know, I’m kind of freaking out right now.”

“And Deaton said you inherited it?” Scott asked in disbelief. Stiles nodded. “Your mom had a necklace,” Scott remembered. “It was a stone.”

Stiles frowned. “Yeah, it was a birthstone,” he explained. “Some New Age crap she was into.”

“What if it wasn’t crap?” Scott asked and Stiles scoffed. “No, hear me out. What if your mom had magic, just like you? What if you inherited it from her?”

Stiles froze. He stared at Scott with wide eyes. “Oh my god,” he said faintly. He tried to take a deep breath but found he could not. “I’m so sick of this. It’s like the bi thing all over again,” he told Scott. “I was doing okay, I was finally okay with who I was and then boom turns out there’s something else I hadn’t realized about myself. It’s like I don’t even know who I am anymore! And I’m asking myself when this is going to stop, you know? What’s next? What if I find out I’m an alien, next, seriously.”

“Stiles, there’s little chance you’re an alien,” Scott told him reasonably.

“How do you know, Scott? Do you have any proof? Do we have any proof aliens actually don’t exist? I mean werewolves and Banshees are a thing – and magic apparently – so why not aliens?”

“Stiles,” Scott exclaimed. “Calm down, you’re having a panic attack.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down, Scott, not right now,” he exclaimed right before his legs gave out. He slid down the wall. “Shit, I can’t breathe.”

“Yes, you can,” Scott said, crouching next to him. “Breathe with me, okay? You can do it. In and out. Good. You’re doing great, Stiles.”

Stiles closed his eyes, trying to focus on breathing as Scott gently talked him through it. When he opened his eyes again, he saw Scott looking at him with worry.

“Do you want a hug?” Scott asked him quietly.

Stiles only nodded and closed his eyes again as Scott wrapped him into a tight embrace.

The rest of the day only got worst after that and Stiles felt exhausted. He stared at Coach pacing in front of the board without hearing a single word of what the man was saying.

“How are you holding up?” Lydia asked quietly from the table next to him.

“I’m fine.” Lydia gave him a look. “Okay, so ‘fine’ might be too strong of a word but I’m dealing.”

“Did you talk to Deaton?”

“Yeah. Apparently I have magic now,” he told her flippantly. She did not even bat an eyelash. “He’s going to help me work everything out.”

“Did you tell Scott about your name being on the list?”

Stiles nodded.

“Stilinski!” Coach exclaimed. “Would it kill you to shut up once in a while?”

“I don’t know Coach, never tried it before!” Stiles answered cheekily, drawing a few chuckles from his classmates.

“Well you’d better start trying,” Coach said before turning around and writing on the board.

“You also need to tell the others,” Lydia told him quietly.

“I know, but I don’t want them to worry.”

“Stiles, come on, we need to stick together, protect each other or we won’t make it out the other end alive.”

Stiles sighed. “Yeah, I know.”

Lydia stared at him. “So I guess that means magic is actually a thing now.”

“You literally talk to dead people!”

The thing was, Stiles was the kind of person who needed all the information they could get before taking a decision. That was why he made his way to the animal clinic for the third day in a row. For the first time in a long time, Stiles felt completely at a loss and Deaton was the best source of information he had at the moment. When Stiles and Scott told him about his suspicions about Stiles’s mom, Deaton froze.

“It might have skipped a generation,” the vet finally said. However, Stiles could clearly see that he did not look convinced.

“Or it might mean my mom was not human,” Stiles stated.

Deaton nodded. “That’s a possibility.”

“No,” Stiles exclaimed, shaking his head. “Because that would mean she _lied_ to me all these years. Did she know I would turn out like this?”

“It’s possible she simply didn’t know, Stiles. If you never exhibited any… abilities when you were younger…”

“She was always telling me how special I was,” Stiles remembered. “I thought, you know, that that’s just something parents tell their kids. I thought she was trying to make me feel better about having ADHD.”

“I’m starting to think your ADHD is a side effect of your… magic, for lack of a better word.”

Stiles could feel Scott’s eyes on him but stayed focused on Deaton. “So I need to know what I am exactly. You didn’t say. Am I like… a wizard or something?”

“The correct term would be ‘witch’,” Deaton answered simply.

Scott scoffed and Stiles glared at him. “Sorry, dude,” Scott told him sheepishly.

“A witch,” Stiles said, trying the word out. “I can work with that.”


	4. Chapter 4

Stiles still had no idea how to broach the subject with his father. Werewolves, Kanimas, Banshees and bloodthirsty druids had been hard enough to explain the first time around. Stiles spent a few hours thinking about – or rather, stressing over – exactly what to tell his dad. He finally found enough strength to walk to the living room where his dad was sitting.

“Hey Dad, can I ask you something?” Stiles asked warily.

“If you need to go to Mexico again then the answer is no,” his dad answered at once without looking away from the magazine in his hands.

“No, that’s not what this is about.”

“Then what is it?”

Stiles sighed and sat down on the couch next to his father. “I have a question… about mom.” His father finally looked up and Stiles could not read the look on his face. “I was wondering if you had kept some of her things, you know. Like a notebook or weird objects or something.”

“You never asked before.”

“It’s just that… something happened recently and I thought I’d ask you.”

His father frowned. “Stiles, I thought you were done keeping things from me. If you’re in trouble I need to know about it, okay?”

“I know, Dad, I’m sorry,” Stiles said, dropping his gaze. “Deaton said something and I wanted to wait before telling you anything because I still don’t really know what’s going on exactly and-”

“Stiles!”

“Deaton said I’m a witch?” Stiles finally said. It ended up sounding like a question though and Stiles hated that. He hated not knowing.

“Excuse me?”

“Don’t freak out!”

“You’d better start explaining, Stiles, now.”

“In my defense, I only learned about it like three days ago,” Stiles told him.

“What does it mean?”

“I don’t know yet,” Stiles admitted. “I don’t know what I can do but I’m working on it.”

“And you think your mom was involved?” his father asked, surprised.

“I think she might have been a witch too?”

“Stiles, no, that’s not possible,” his father told him at once. “I would have known. She would have _told_ me.”

“Dad, I’m sorry. There’s still a chance she wasn’t, you know.”

His father sighed and ran a hand over his face. “There’s a jewelry box in the closet in my room. She told me you might ask about it someday,” he finally told him. Stiles nodded and got up. “I should have known,” his father mumbled.

“Dad… I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault, kid,” his father told him gently. “But I wish you’d stop lying to me.”

Stiles nodded silently before turning around and making his way upstairs, dreading what he would find. The idea that his mom might have lied to him or worse that she simply had died before being able to tell him the truth, was unbearable.

He stopped in front of the door, his hand hovering over the handle. Taking a deep breath, Stiles stepped inside the room and walked to the closet before kneeling down. He reached inside, his hands trembling. The wooden chest was right there but Stiles could not find the strength to take it. He simply could not do it.

Taking a deep breath, Stiles finally grabbed the chest. He sat cross-legged on the floor of his dad’s bedroom and slowly lifted the lid. At first glance, the chest looked like any other jewelry box. Finally, Stiles noticed that it had a false bottom.

That was it then, he realized. The answers he had been looking for.

In the second compartment, he found some pictures that he gently set aside. He could not look at them just yet. Next, he found the necklace Scott had been talking about, and touched the stone almost reverently. He closed his eyes a second, finally put the necklace into the pocket of his hoodie and looked inside the chest once more. A set of stones, a talisman, tarot cards, incense sticks… To an outsider, the content of the chest would have looked like junk but Stiles knew better now.

God, Scott had been right after all.

Stiles caught sight of a brown leather notebook at the bottom of the chest. It did not look like much. Stiles opened it carefully and immediately saw a sheet of paper folded in half. He unfolded it carefully and began to read.

My sweet little Mischief,

If you’re reading this it means that you’ve found out the truth about yourself. I had hoped you’d never have to go through this. All I’ve ever wanted for you was to be safe.

I know you must have a lot of questions and I wish I were here to answer them all but I’m not. The truth is I’ve always thought of my abilities as a curse but you should know they can also be a gift.

I want you to see them as a gift I’ve left you. Please, don’t resent me for it and for leaving you. It was not my choice.

There’s so much to say, I wish I had more time. I hope you’ll find the answers you need in this notebook. But most important of all, you need to realize that the answers are inside of you. You already have everything you need. You always have been a clever boy, honey, I know you’ll be able to get past this and become an even greater person than I could ever imagine.

Love always,

Mom.

Stiles had thought the gaping hole in his chest caused by his mother’s death had healed years ago but reading her letter and seeing her handwriting had suddenly reopened it. His chest had been opened in half and his heart had been ripped out. He could not breathe. Tears started rolling down his face.

His dad found him a while later, clutching the letter and sobbing uncontrollably. Stiles had no idea how much time had passed. He wrapped his arms around his father and buried his face in his shoulder as he cried his mother death. All those years ago, Stiles’s father had not been at the hospital when his mother had passed away and Stiles had cried alone at his mother’s bedside. At the time, Stiles had been too young to really understand the depth of his loss. Now he felt her absence even more strongly than ever before as he realized there were so many questions she would never be able to answer.

That night, Stiles did not sleep at all. He stayed up, reading his mother’s notes about protection and healing stones as well as divination. He also found a whole section on the use of crystals on people with attention issues. He felt his heart stop. He had the feeling his mom had written those particular pages just for him.


	5. Chapter 5

If Stiles had thought Deaton might help him control his _energy_ , he had been gravely mistaking. That man was more cryptic than ever.

“You need to control your emotions. You can’t let them control you,” Deaton told him, looking at the mess around them. Stiles had been trying to knock over a pen on the table and had ended up knocking over every other item in the room by accident instead. “Having an anchor might help.”

“But I’m not a werewolf,” Stiles felt compelled to remind him. He let himself fall on a nearby chair. His head was killing him.

Deaton smiled kindly at him. “Anchors don’t only work on werewolves. In your case, I think having something – or someone – to hold on to would help calm you down more easily.”

Stiles took a deep breath. “Okay, an anchor. I can do that,” he said. “How do I do that? Find an anchor, I mean.”

“Scott would be better suited to answer this question but you can’t actually _choose_ your anchor. It’s something that comes to you naturally, that makes you feel safe and grounded.”

As he listened to Deaton’s explanation, Stiles could not help but think of Derek. Granted, Stiles absolutely loved to rile the guy up but there was something about his presence… something that made Stiles feel safe. He shook his head and tried not to think too much about Derek’s broad shoulders.

“Okay, I think I’ve got one. So do I have to think about a happy memory, or…”

Deaton rolled his eyes. “Despite what you may think, you’re not Harry Potter,” he said.

“You’re no fun,” Stiles huffed. “But seriously, how thinking about Der- _that person_ will help me exactly?”

Deaton gave him a level look but Stiles could have sworn the guy was trying not to smile. “That’s something you need to find out for yourself.”

“I’ll just ask Scott about it then,” he said matter-of-factly, clapping his hands together as he jumped on his feet. Deaton sighed. “Thanks Doc, bye.”

He did not ask Scott about it. What was he even supposed to say? He did not know for sure if Scott even knew about his stupid crush on Derek but Stiles had a feeling Scott would either be deeply confused about it or overly supportive and Stiles was not ready to deal with either of those options just yet.

Since Deaton was not able to help more, Stiles started doing his own research. He could do this. After all, he had helped Scott with becoming a werewolf; he could totally manage researching magic on his own. After a few hours and a few hundred opened tabs, Stiles’s eyes were starting to close on their own.

Stiles copied the address of a shop in Beacon Hills on a piece of paper and decided to check it out the next morning. He woke up way to early for a Saturday, had a quick breakfast and dashed to his car. As he drove, Stiles drilled his fingers on the steering wheel nervously and realized that he had forgotten to take his meds for the second day in a row. He decided to make a quick stop for coffee and finally made it to the shop.

The little door bell chimed as he made his way inside the empty shop. The smell of incense alone almost made him turn back. The whole situation was ridiculous.

Looking around the shop, Stiles recognized several items he had found in his mom’s jewelry box such as tarot cards or crystals. The stack of books near the stone display drew his attention. He carefully put his cup of coffee on the table before opening a book about the use of stones and started skimming through it, noticing the same link between zodiac signs and stones he had found in his mom’s notebook.

“Can I help you?” someone asked right in his ear.

Stiles yelped, clutching his chest with his hand. It was a good thing he was not holding his cup of coffee anymore. When he turned around, Stiles came face to face with a beautiful young woman with light brown hair wearing a long green summer dress. His eyes were immediately drawn to the pattern of the talisman around her neck for seeing it on Derek’s back time and time again.

“I’m sorry,” she said, smiling sheepishly. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s fine,” Stiles told her. “I’m just a little jumpy these days.”

She smiled at him like she understood exactly what he meant. Then, as she looked at him, Stiles caught sight of the surprise on her face.

“What is it?” he asked warily.

“You have a really strong aura,” she told him. “I’m Selena, by the way.”

“Huh, Stiles. What is it you said about my aura?”

“It’s almost like it’s buzzing,” Selena explained as she looked at him, or rather looked at a spot right above his head. “You have a lot of energy.”

“Yeah, I heard that one before,” he mumbled. “But wait, if you can feel that, that means you’re the real deal, right?” he exclaimed excitingly.

Selena beamed. “So what can I do for you?”

“Well,” Stiles started hesitantly. “I’m new to all this but I was reading up on stones and…”

Selena nodded. “Yeah, I think that might be right up your alley, actually. What kind of use where you thinking about?”

“Protection, mostly, for my friends. They need it, like, a lot,” he told her.

“Right. That book is great for beginners by the way,” she said, pointing at the open book in front of him.

Stiles nodded. “So, let’s say I need a stone for my friend Scott,” he said, looking at the book again.

“You need to match his zodiac sign to the intended purpose,” she explained. “Wait, did you say Scott?” she asked. “Scott McCall?”

Stiles looked up in surprise. “Yeah, do you know him?”

“I know of him. Stiles… Stilinski, right? The Sheriff’s kid?” Stiles nodded. “I knew you looked familiar. You guys are starting to get really famous among the supernatural community.”

Stiles gasped. “You’ve heard about us?”

“Are you kidding? You guys are the reason I came back to Beacon Hills in the first place. Seriously, I feel so much safer now that you guys are around.”

“Wow, that’s… thanks. Always happy to help. Wait, so that means that all this,” he said, waving around the shop, “is actually legit?”

“It depends on the user,” she told him. She actually started to remind him of Deaton a bit. “Well, if you have any other questions you know where to find me.”

“Actually,” Stiles said before she could turn around, “I read that quartz crystals are supposed to help with focusing. Is that an actual thing?”

“Yeah, totally,” she answered, beaming. “I use them for meditating.” Looking around the shop, she pointed at a display near the cash register. “They’re right there.”

“Cool. Thanks.”

Stiles decided to focus on buying stones for his friends for now. He already knew Scott’s, Lydia’s and Malia’s zodiac signs and bough them each a stone. He also bought one for his dad. He would have to ask the others about their sign at a later date.

Stiles balanced the stones and the book in one hand while sipping his coffee and made his way to the cash register. He also grabbed a whole box of quartz crystals and some incense.

After scanning the items, Selena handed him a flyer from the counter as Stiles dug out his credit card from his jean pocket.

“I give meditation classes in the evening,” she told him. “If you ever want to come… I think it’d be good for you.”

“Thanks, I’ll think about it.”

“There you go,” she said once she had put all the items in a cotton shopping bag.

“Thanks again. Bye!”

Stiles spent the rest of the weekend highlighting whole pages of his brand new book, reading about the proper care of stones and the way of replenishing them. He also tried meditating, sitting cross-legged on the floor in his room, but soon realized that all the quartz crystals in the world could not possibly make up for the way his mind kept wandering in the strangest places. He was getting more and more frustrated.

When Stiles opened his eyes again, he caught sight of his dad leaning against the doorframe.

“What are you doing?” his father asked, looking at the crystals on the ground surrounding Stiles and the incense burning on his desk.

“Meditating,” Stiles answered. “Well, trying to. It’s supposed to help.”

“With the magic?” his dad asked, bless his heart. Stiles hummed. “Is it working?”

Stiles sighed. “Not really,” he said before lying down on the ground. He winced and dug a crystal from under his back with a groan of pain.

“I’ll leave you to it,” his dad said. Stiles could imagine the incredulity on his father’s face.

Monday morning, Stiles gave Scott a Cat’s eye stone.

“You need to keep this with you at all times, alright?” he told his best friend. “It’s really important, so don’t lose it, alright?”

Scott nodded. “Thanks, I guess. What is it?”

“It’s supposed to protect you,” Stiles explained. “God knows you need it.”

“Thanks, dude. I talked to Kira by the way, told her what Deaton had said.”

Stiles nodded. “Thanks, man. How did she react?”

“Worried about you, like we all are.”

“Yeah, well, now you know how I feel about you guys. Which reminds me, I need to talk to Kira before first period. See you!”

Stiles dashed through the corridor to Kira’s locker.

“I need to know your zodiac sign,” Stiles told his friend without preamble.

Kira turned around slowly. “Why do you need to know my zodiac sign?” she asked.

“I’m trying to save your life here, don’t look at me like that,” Stiles told her.

“Like what?”

“Like I’ve just escaped the loony bin. Which I didn’t by the way,” he reminded her. “I got discharged.”

Kira sighed, took a couple books from her locker and shut the door. “Sagittarius,” she told him finally.

Stiles nodded, already thinking fast. “Wait, do I need to use Japanese zodiac instead?” he asked her suddenly, his eyes going wide. “Shit, I don’t know anything about that!”

He fished his phone out of his pocket and turned around, typing fast.

“I was born in New York!” Kira yelled after him, smiling sheepishly when people turned around to stare at her.

He gave Lydia the amber bracelet he had bought during lunch break, instructing her to wear it everyday before fishing his cellphone out of his pocket and calling Derek.

“What’s your zodiac sign?” Stiles asked as soon as the man picked up.

“Libra,” Derek grunted before hanging up.

Stiles stared at the phone in his hand. “Weird,” he mumbled. Lydia raised an eyebrow at him in question. “Derek. Answering my question without being a pain in the ass.”

“That’s unusual,” she agreed before shrugging and biting into her sandwich.

“Don’t I get a stone?” Malia asked from where she was sitting on the other side of the table.

“Of course you do!” Stiles exclaimed as he bent down to take a small yellow citrine stone out of his backpack. “I wasn’t sure if you’d rather wear it as a jewel or keep it in your pocket…”

“Pocket is fine,” she said matter-of-factly, bending forward to take the stone from Stiles’s hand.

“Great. Don’t lose it!”

“I won’t.”

The next person on Stiles’s list was Liam, whom he saw at the end of the day, during lacrosse practice. He grabbed Liam’s arm as the beta walked past him.

“Hey, I need to know your zodiac sign,” he told him.

“What for?” Liam asked.

Stiles sighed, throwing his hands up in the air. “I don’t know, Liam! I’m flying blind here, all I know is that I woke up one day and boom,” he exclaimed, clapping his hands together and making Liam jump, “I’m a witch now! So what’s your zodiac sign?”

Liam stared at him in disbelief. “What do you mean you’re a witch?”

Stiles turned to Scott, baffled. “You didn’t tell him?” he asked accusingly.

“I thought _you_ did!”

Stiles groaned. “He’s _your_ beta!”

“Well, he’s your… packmate!”

Stiles rolled his eyes before turning back to Liam who was looking at the both of them like they were crazy.

“So yeah, my name is on the Deadpool apparently,” Stiles explained.

Liam stared at him with wide eyes. “Aries,” he finally said.

Stiles nodded and patted his shoulder. The three of them jumped when Coach blew his whistle right in their face.

“I said start running!” he yelled.

The three of them did not need to be asked twice.

“Did you talk to Deaton about Selena?” Stiles asked Scott, already panting after only a few minutes of running.

“I did. He told me he knew her mom before they left Beacon Hills seven years ago.”

“The fire,” Stiles guessed.

Scott nodded. “Apparently Selena’s mom was a druid like Deaton and she taught Selena everything she knew.”

“So she’s one of the good guys, right?”

“According to Deaton, yes.”

“Okay, good. That’s good.”

At the end of the day, Stiles drove to the shop. He stopped on the way to get donuts and coffee.

“Stiles! Hi!” Selena greeted as soon as he crossed the threshold. “I wasn’t expecting you back so soon.”

“I come bearing gifts,” he said, holding up the box and the cup of coffee.

He put the box of donuts on the counter and handed her the cup of coffee.

“How are you?” she asked.

“Exhausted,” Stiles admitted. “And it feels like I’m always hungry now.”

Selena laughed and opened the box. “That’s completely normal. Low blood sugar is a side effect of using so much energy. You need to eat more,” she told him, pushing the box toward him.

“Yeah, that’s what Deaton said.”

Selena nodded and Stiles’s eyes were once more drawn to the talisman around her neck. She raised a hand and brushed her fingers against it.

“It’s a triskelion,” she told him. “I noticed you staring at it last time.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. It’s just… It reminds me of one of my friends. He has a tattoo just like this. It represents harmony, right?”

Selena smiled. “It can mean a lot of things. For me, it represents the harmony between mind, body and spirit.” Stiles nodded. “Balance is important when it comes to the mystical,” she added. “If you lose your balance then you’re more vulnerable to negative influences.”

“So a lack of balance could lead a druid to become a Darach for example?” he guessed.

“Yeah, that’s why balance is so important, especially for people like us. We deal with so much power that we really need to keep our balance. That’s what my mom always told me. She gave me that necklace as a reminder.”

Stiles nodded. They finished eating in silence. 

Selena had been right about using stones, he was really starting to get the hang of it, even though using that much energy to charge them left him exhausted. His friends all needed protection, now more than ever as more and more assassins were coming after them. And Derek was the most vulnerable of them all. Whatever Kate had done to him, it had made him weaker, which meant that it was up to Stiles to protect him now. He knew by now that when using a stone, the most important part was intent.

Glancing down at the book in front of him, his eyes hovered over the word ‘anchor’. Derek had been anchoring him without knowing it since that whole thing started and now, Stiles wanted to do the same for him. And Derek would never have to know about the meaning of the stones anyway, Stiles realized. Looking for a way to ground Derek reminded him of his other friends who were still struggling with their anchors. He smiled and planned to run by Selena’s shop on his way back from school to get more stones for Derek, Liam and Malia.

The next day, Stiles realized that his brilliant idea to protect his friends might not have been so brilliant after all after a little mishap during lacrosse practice. Coach was making them all practice shots, two against one. Kira and Liam were playing defense while Scott tried to score. The Alpha ran at them, holding his stick with both hands. Kira and Liam stood their ground. Then, when the three of them collided, Stiles watched in horror as a shimmering blue wall raised around each one of his friends. The shockwave sent them sprawling on the ground.

Stiles rushed to them and grabbed Kira by the arm to help her back on her feet. “Are you guys okay?” he asked. “I’m so sorry, that was totally my fault.”

Scott groaned in pain and rolled over on his side. Liam stayed down and put his arm over his eyes.

“It’s fine,” the beta grunted.

“I think we need to leave those stones in the locker room when we play,” Kira suggested.

“Yeah, no kidding.”


	6. Chapter 6

Stiles took a deep breath and knocked on the door of Derek’s loft. When it finally opened, Stiles found himself standing face to face with Braeden, shotgun in hand, wearing a dark tank top that let her bra show and a pair of denim shorts.

God, could she be more perfect? Stiles thought bitterly.

“You’re not Derek,” he pointed out dumbly.

Braeden laughed. “Come on in,” she said, stepping aside to let him in. She dropped the gun on the table and turned around to face him. “Derek should be back soon,” she told him, her dark eyes boring into his very soul.

She made him feel so inadequate, it was not even funny anymore.

“Good, that’s good. I have a couple things I need to give him.”

“You can leave them with me if you want,” she offered.

“No, that’s fine, thanks. It’s a bit complicated. I need to explain it to Derek in person.” Braeden nodded. “I don’t know if Derek mentioned it,” Stiles said to fill the awkward silence. “My name also ended up on the Deadpool.”

Stiles could not read the expression on Braeden’s face. “Yes, Derek mentioned it.”

“Okay,” Stiles said, rocking on the ball of his feet. “So yeah, I’m a witch, apparently. Which, I know, doesn’t sound nearly as badass as it should and I mean, you’d know about badass, right? Being a mercenary and all…”

Something resembling a smile appeared on her face. Fortunately, Stiles was saved from spouting even more nonsense by Derek sliding the door open.

“Stiles?” he frowned. “What are you doing here?”

Stiles swallowed nervously, reached inside his pocket with a clammy hand and took out the two stones he had prepared for Derek.

“Stones!” he exclaimed in a high-pitched voice. He cleared his throat. “I brought you protective stones. Don’t look at me like that, everyone’s getting them.”

He grabbed Derek’s wrist and placed the bronzite stone and the smoky quartz crystal in his opened palm.

“Keep them in your pocket at all times, alright? I’ll need to replenish them in a couple days but I’ll brought you spares,” he explained, pointedly avoiding Derek’s eyes by focusing on the stones in front of him.

He suddenly let go of Derek’s wrist and cleared his throat again.

“Alright, I think that’s everything you need to know. Call me if you need anything. Or, you know, drop by if you want. My window’s always open. Okay. Bye.”

Then, he rushed out of the room, nearly tripping on his own feet. Stiles could have sworn he heard Braeden chuckle and he could perfectly picture Derek’s heavy frown. He jerked the car door open and jumped in. Then, he let out a long sigh and banged his head against the steering wheel several times in a row.

“What. An. Idiot!” he said with each new hit.

During one of his many visits to Selena’s shop, the book on divination had been standing on the countertop, basically calling him and Stiles had not been able to resist. He should have known reading it during Econ instead of listening to Coach ramble on about supply and demand was a very bad idea but god, those classes were _boring_!

Stiles highlighted a whole paragraph on the proper way of drawing star charts. For a few seconds, it gave him the feeling of actually knowing what he was doing. He had mastered the use of stones after all, he could totally handle divination even if he knew nothing about starts and constellations at the moment.

Stiles was busy looking at the page in front of him, trying to make sense of the drawings – and why did the Libra constellation look like a kite to him? – when Coach’s voice right into his ear made him jump out of his skin.

“What the heck are you doing Stilinski?”

“Nothing!” Stiles exclaimed.

He tried to cover the book with a sheet of paper. Unfortunately, he only managed to knock down the book and the star maps he had printed out for cross-referencing off his desk and onto the floor at Lydia’s feet. Lydia raised an eyebrow at the mess.

“Get your head in the game, Stilinski!” Coach exclaimed, walking away.

“This isn’t a lacrosse field!” Stiles exclaimed.

Coach turned around. “ _Life_ is a lacrosse field,” he stated plainly. “Now get back to work!”

Stiles spent the rest of the day checking the stones he had given his friends. He had a whole system in place by now: daily checks of the energy within the stones and exchanging the empty ones against the spares he had at hand. The last person on his list that day was Liam. He waited until practice was over to walk over to the other teen standing in front of his locker in the locker room.

“What do you want, Stiles?” Liam asked without even needing to turn around. Damn werewolves.

“I need to check out your stones,” he simply said.

Stiles heard someone sputter and saw Coach chocking on a mouthful of coffee, staring at the both of them.

Stiles frowned before the reality of what he had just said hit him.

“No, Coach, that’s really not-”

“I don’t even want to know, Stilinski,” Coach said, shaking his head and walking back to his office.

Stiles groaned and banged his head against the locker – hard. Liam patted his shoulder before walking away.

“I still need to take a look at those stones of yours, Dunbar!” Stiles yelled after Liam.

He pointedly ignored the weird looks he got from his teammates and banged his head once more.


	7. Chapter 7

Stiles placed his cellphone between his ear and his shoulder, kicking the ground with his feet and making his desk chair spin as he waited.

“Anita’s flower shop,” he finally heard.

Stiles grabbed the phone with his hand and hunched over his desk. “Anita, hi! It’s Stiles… Stilinski.”

“Hey, how are you, kid? It’s been a while.”

Stiles made a face. It was true he had not visited his mom’s grave and thus had not needed flowers from Anita in a while. Stiles and his dad had been getting their flowers from Anita’s little shop for years because it was conveniently located just across the street from the police station. They’ve known the woman for years and she had always been nice to Stiles when he was a kid.

After Stiles placed his usual order for the next day, the two of them chatted for a bit, until Stiles heard a suspicious thud just outside his window. He turned around and jumped in fright when a bloody hand slid along the glass. The window opened and Derek made his way inside the room.

“Jesus!” Stiles exclaimed. “Anita, I gotta go. See you tomorrow. Bye.”

Stiles jumped on his feet when he saw the blood on Derek’s shirt. “I’m having the weirdest feeling of deja vu ever.” Derek merely rolled his eyes at him. “Dude, what happened to you?” Derek mumbled something Stiles could not make out. “I’m sorry, what?”

“I said, I slipped from the roof,” Derek grumbled.

Stiles tried not to laugh. He really did. “You do know about front doors, right?” Derek glared at him. “Yeah I get it, old habits and all that jazz. Come on, show me your hands.”

Stiles pushed Derek on the desk chair before taking a look at the man’s bloody hands.

“Okay, it’s not that bad,” Stiles pointed out. “I have a first aid kit in the bathroom. Just stay put, okay?”

Stiles quickly grabbed the first aid kit from the bathroom cabinet and made his way back to his room. Stiles kneeled down in front of the man and started to gently clean up the cuts on his hands. He could tell Derek was avoiding his eyes.

“It’s fine,” Stiles told him. He could not even begin to imagine how it must feel for Derek to not be able to heal as fast anymore. “What are you doing here, by the way? Not that I’m not glad you’re bleeding all over my floor, again.”

Derek rolled his eyes. “You were supposed to give me spare stones today,” he explained.

“Dude, I was going to bring them at your place. Couldn’t you – I don’t know – call or something?”

“I did, you didn’t pick up.”

Stiles glanced at him in surprise. Had Derek really come to his house and climbed through his window simply because Stiles had not answered his phone? What did that mean? Stiles was not sure he should ask himself that question. That way laid madness.

The next day, as Stiles made his way to the flower shop, he tried not to think too much about the feeling of Derek’s hands in his. He shook his head and opened the door of the shop.

“Hey, Anita, how are… you?” Stiles came to a screeching halt. “You’re not Anita,” he said, eying the blonde behind the counter.

“Hi, I’m Crystal,” the young woman told him brightly. “How can I help?”

“Huh…” Stiles shook himself, trying to not let his surprise show. “Hi. Anita’s not in?” he asked. “Is she okay?”

The young woman, Crystal, gave him a friendly smile. “She’s off visiting her family,” she explained and Stiles immediately frowned. “What can I do for you?” she asked, not unpleasantly.

Stiles stared at her. She looked harmless enough but Stiles knew for a fact that Anita had no family left since her sister had died in a car accident a few years prior.

“I’m here to pick up an order,” he told her finally.

“Your name?”

“Hum?”

“I need your name,” she explained patiently, pointing at the order book on the counter.

“Oh, right!” Stiles exclaimed. “It’s Stilinski, Stiles Stilinski.”

Crystal hummed, looking at the book. “Got you,” she said suddenly and smiled.

She made her way to the back of the shop and came out a few seconds later with a pink carnation bouquet.

“There you go, Stiles.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

Stiles fumbled for his credit card while he tried to keep an eye on the strange girl. He finally managed to pay for the flowers without making an idiot of himself.

“See you soon,” Crystal told him with a huge smile.

“Yeah, huh, bye.”

Stiles almost tripped on a stool on his way out but managed not to crush the flowers in his hands.

Stiles put the bouquet on the passenger seat and drove to the cemetery. He almost turned back twice but finally found enough strength to make his way to his mom’s grave.

“Hi, mom,” he croaked. He kneeled on the grass and gently put the flowers in the empty pot in front of the tombstone. “It’s been a while since I came.” He stopped, taking a deep breath. “Full disclosure here, I’m really pissed at you,” he finally said. “There has been a lot going on in my life. I found out about things I didn’t think could even exist and that makes me think that maybe you can hear me right now. If you can… I guess I have one question… Actually, no, I have like a bazillion questions but… Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked, staring at her name on the tombstone. “You can’t drop a bombshell like that and not be _there_ to explain. You should have told me years ago! I would have handled it. I- Shit, I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”

Stiles sat down more comfortably, resting his back against the tombstone and kept talking. He told his mom about everything that had happened since Scott had been bitten.

“Let me in!”

Stiles woke up screaming. He had no idea where he was but he could already tell he was not in his bed. Everything was dark around him. Had he been sleepwalking again?

Calm down, he thought. You need to calm the fuck down.

“Stiles! Can you hear me?”

Stiles blinked and met Derek’s green eyes. For a second, he thought his mind was playing tricks on him or that the whole anchor thing was more efficient than he had thought. Then, Stiles realized that Derek was in fact kneeling in front of him, trying to calm him down. He felt Derek gently take his hand in his own.

The cemetery, Stiles realized in a daze. Unlike what he had feared, there was no sleepwalking involved. He had simply fallen asleep at the cemetery.

“I’m awake,” he whispered, trying to not let his fear take over in the real world. It had been a nightmare. He had been asleep. “It’s not real,” he said.

“Stiles, focus,” Derek told him. “How many fingers do you see?”

Stiles looked down at their joined hands. Derek’s words did not immediately register with him. Then, slowly, Stiles started counting, touching Derek’s fingers one after the other as he did.

“One,” he started breathlessly. “Two. Three. Four. Five,” he counted, again and again, focusing on the feeling of Derek’s skin against his fingertips.

“You’re doing great. Come on, one more time.”

“How do you even know about that?” Stiles croaked out. His throat hurt from screaming. God, he just hoped nobody had called the police.

Derek smiled gently at him. “It doesn’t seem like it but I do listen to you.”

Stiles was gobsmacked. He shook his head. “You’re right.” Derek gave him a questioning look. “It doesn’t seem like it,” he added. Derek shook his head, trying to hide a smile. “Not that I’m not grateful but what are you doing here?”

“Scott called me. You weren’t answering his texts. He was worried you got abducted or killed.”

“Oh.” Stiles grabbed his phone and realized the battery was dead. “How did you know I’d be here?”

“You were on the phone with Anita when I came by yesterday,” Derek explained.

“Stalker,” Stiles mumbled.

Derek rolled his eyes. Then, he got up and gave Stiles his hand. “Come on, get up. I’ll drive you home.”

Stiles took Derek’s offered hand. He stumbled and almost fell against Derek’s chest. He probably looked a mess. And he felt like one too.

“Give me your keys,” Derek told him quietly. Stiles glanced at him. Derek’s words did not seem to register with him. “You’re in no state to drive. I’ll be careful, I promise.”

Stiles finally reached inside his pocket, took out the keys and placed them into the palm of Derek’s hand.

“I know it’s ridiculous,” Stiles said once the both of them were sitting inside the Jeep. “That car is falling to pieces. I know everyone thinks I should just get rid of it but I can’t.”

“It was your mom’s,” Derek said, like that explained everything, and maybe it did.

Stiles glanced at him in surprise. “How do you know that?”

Derek shrugged. “I just assumed it was hers. It’s pretty obvious from how much you care about it.”

Stiles sighed and glanced away, staring outside the window. “She was a witch, you know,” he said, not looking at Derek. “And she never told me. I had to find out by myself. She… She left a letter… but god, that was even worse than saying nothing, I think. And I have so many questions but it’s too late now. I… I just wish she had _told_ me the truth before dying, you know.”

“Yeah, I know,” Derek said quietly. “There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t miss my mom. I was born a werewolf but there’re still so many questions I’d want to ask her. I know she would have had the answers to them all.”

Stiles ran a hand over his face, drying a few tears. “Yeah, it sucks.”

Derek handed his phone to Stiles and the boy looked at it in surprise.

“Call Scott,” Derek told him. “Tell him you’re not dead.”

Stiles rolled his eyes but complied. “Hey Scotty,” he said as soon as Scott picked up.

“Oh my god, Stiles! Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, Derek’s driving me home.”

“Good, that’s good, I’m glad you’re okay, man.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

“See you at school.”

“Wait, Scotty, the new girl at the flower shop seems pretty shady, maybe we should look into it. She said Anita’s visiting her family but that’s not-”

“Who’s Anita?” Scott asked.

“Dude, she owns the flower shop near the police station.”

Scott hummed. “Right.”

Stiles rolled his eyes. “Goodnight Scotty, see you tomorrow.”


	8. Chapter 8

There had been a new murder, a new name crossed off the list, and they were not any closer to finding out who was behind the Deadpool. Stiles looked around Derek’s loft, glancing at his friends and hoped they would all come out the other end in one piece.

“Where is Scott?” Derek asked grumpily, turning to Kira.

The girl frowned. “We were supposed to meet up here.”

Stiles nodded, and started biting his nails absentmindedly.

“You’re worried,” Kira pointed out. “Why are you worried?”

“I’ve got a bad feeling, that’s all. Besides, I’m pretty sure the stone I gave Scott might be empty by now.”

Kira made a face before getting her emotions back under control. “I’m sure he’s fine,” she said without much conviction and Lydia nodded.

Malia’s eyes suddenly flashed blue as she turned sharply towards the front door. They heard a crash in the corridor outside the loft and they watched in surprise and horror as Scott was sent flying through the threshold and two very angry looking Berserkers walked into the loft.

Kira immediately drew her sword and jumped in front of the creatures with Malia, while Derek rushed to Scott to help him up. Braeden reached for her shotgun and aimed at the Berserkers. Even direct shots to the chest made nothing to slow them down.

Stiles froze. Kira, Scott and Malia were the only ones with special abilities. Braeden and Derek both had guns, which proved completely useless against the Berserkers and Stiles did not even have his bat with him. As for his own abilities… he was pretty sure the Berserkers would just laugh in his face if he got some stones out – if Berserkers could even laugh, that is.

They were screwed.

Why would Kate send Berserkers after them now?

For a terrifying second, Stiles got the impression that the creatures were slowly making their way to him – which did not make any sense. Why would they care about _him_? He was not a threat to them.

Derek stepped forward, shooting at one of the Berserkers. One of the creatures lifted its bone-covered arm to strike the man.

Its hand never even touched Derek.

A shockwave coming from Derek’s jean pocket sent both creatures flying across the room as the windows behind them all shattered into a thousand pieces, sending shards of glass everywhere inside the loft. Stiles found himself being suddenly tackled by Derek and heard Kira yelling Scott’s name. He saw a shimmering blue shield appear around Lydia and Malia, protecting them from the shards. Derek’s arms wrapped protectively around Stiles as pieces of glass knocked against the force field around them.

When Stiles lifted his head again, the Berserkers were gone and Derek was still plastered all over him.

“Are you okay?” the man asked right into Stiles’s ear.

Stiles nodded slowly. He glanced around. His friends seemed miraculously okay. Scott’s busted lip was already healing and the girls did not have a scratch on them.

A few feet away, Braeden grunted in pain as she slowly sat up on the ground. Stiles’s eyes went wide when he caught sight of the state of her arm. Scott rushed to her and immediately took her hand. Black veins appeared on his arms as he took her pain away. Derek ran to them and kneeled in front of the mercenary.

Stiles could not stop staring at the pieces of broken glass sticking from her arm.

“I’m so sorry,” he exclaimed, running to her. “That’s totally my fault. Oh my god, are you okay?”

Braeden lifted her other arm and rested her hand on Stiles’s shoulder. “Stiles, I’m fine. I’ve had worse, believe me.”

“We should take you to the hospital,” Kira pointed out.

Scott helped the woman back on her feet and he and Kira supported her as they made their way to the front door.

“I’m coming with you,” Derek said at once but Braeden shook her head.

“Stay here, stay safe, I’ll be back as soon as I can,” she told him before kissing his forehead gently. Then she turned to Stiles. “Keep an eye on him for me, would you?”

Stiles nodded wordlessly and watched them go.

“I’ll try to catch the Berserkers’ scent,” Malia told them suddenly before marching out of the loft.

“I’ll come with you!” Lydia exclaimed.

“What?” Stiles exclaimed in disbelief. “Come on guys,” he shouted after them but they were already gone. “Okay, fine, just be careful, okay?”

The loft was a mess but now was not the time for clean-up. Stiles did not particularly want to face Derek after almost killing his girlfriend, so he went to the small kitchen area and busied himself making them something to drink.

When Stiles went back to the living room, he found Derek sitting on the couch, staring blankly at the wall.

“Here, drink thing,” Stiles said, handing him a steaming mug.

“What’s this?” Derek asked. “Some kind of potion?”

Stiles rolled his eyes and sat down next to the man. “It’s chamomile tea, Derek,” he said. “Geez.”

“You’re really stupid, you know that?” Derek told him suddenly.

Stiles raised his eyebrows in surprise. “What? Look, I already said I’m sorry, I-”

“You gave us all these stones for protection but you didn’t make one for yourself?”

Stiles stared at him in disbelief. “I don’t need one. I have you guys,” he said.

“I don’t get why she would attack us now,” Derek told him. “What changed?”

“I think it’s my fault,” Stiles said. Derek frowned. “No, look, I swear those Berserkers were coming right at me. I’m pretty sure she was _testing_ me.”

“Testing our defenses.”

Stiles nodded. “Man, you certainly have a type,” he groaned, resting his head on the back of the couch.

“What do you mean?”

Stiles gave him an unimpressed look. “Sexy but deadly,” Stiles explained. Derek frowned some more. “Come on, Derek. Braeden? Jennifer? Kate? Ring any bell?”

Derek face fell and Stiles’ heart skipped a bit. He bit his lower lip nervously. “Shit. Look, Derek, I-”

“How do you know about Kate?” Derek asked.

Stiles stared at him, surprised. “Unlike some other people I know, I actually use my brain.”

Derek did not even roll his eyes at the jest, which only made Stiles feel worse. He should really think more before opening his big mouth.

“It’s just the way she acts with you, like she _knows_ you. And the fact she changed you back into your fifteen year-old self to try and manipulate you. I just had a feeling. Like- I don’t know if you were in love with her or anything but I know you trusted her and she betrayed that trust and for that I’m sorry.”

“Stiles-”

“I know, shut up.”

“No, I- Thank you for the stones.”

Stiles smiled. “You’re welcome.”


	9. Chapter 9

Braeden had been able to get out of the hospital a few hours later and Stiles had gone home. The situation just kept getting worse and he could not shake that feeling of impending doom. Ironically, he had never felt as helpless as he felt now despite all his new abilities. 

Stiles had just taken out his mom’s tarot cards out of their box when he heard someone knocking downstairs.

When Stiles opened the front door, he found himself face to face with a blue-eyed coyote and Lydia, her wet long red hair plastered all over her face.

She screamed.

After turning back into her human form and putting on some of Stiles’s clothes, Malia flopped down on Stiles’s bed like it was her own and groaned. “So what now?”

Stiles gave Lydia a pair of sweatpants and a shirt. “There you go. There’re fresh towels under the sink.”

Lydia made her way to the bathroom in a daze. Stiles could not imagine what it was like for her to be steered in every direction against her will. No matter how many times he saw her going into a trance, it was still creepy.

“What happened?” Stiles asked Malia.

“After what happened earlier, Scott asked me to keep an eye on her. So when I saw her get out of her house I started following her. She _walked_ here, Stiles. And it was like she didn’t even see me. It was weird.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Stiles mumbled, glancing at the door. “I guess that means I’m next on the list then.”

“I won’t let anything happen to you,” she vowed.

Stiles believed her.

“What are those?” she asked after a while, glancing at the cards on his desk.

“Oh right, I’m trying my hand at tarot reading,” he told her simply.

Both of them turned around as Lydia made her way inside the bedroom, freshly showered, her wet hair tied into a messy bun.

“Do you know anything about tarot reading?” the red-haired girl asked him, raising an eyebrow. “Anything at all?”

“Hey, I’ve been studying!” he told her.

Lydia rolled her eyes and sat down on the bed next to Malia.

“Lydia!” he suddenly exclaimed, making the girl jump in surprise. “You should shuffle the deck!”

“What? Why?”

“I think the whole Banshee thing might help,” he explained, handing her the deck.

She frowned but took the cards from Stiles. “Whose future are you trying to read anyway?”

“Derek’s,” Stiles answered plainly.

Lydia sighed. “Of course you are.”

She took the deck from him and started shuffling it. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Stiles wondered what she was hearing in that moment. Then, she opened her eyes again, looking at him strangely.

“Lydia? What did you hear?”

She handed him the deck without a word. Stiles grabbed the first card at the top of the deck, his hand shaking. He could not help but glance back at Lydia for a second. She still looked shaken up.

Stiles displayed three cards on the edge of the bed and turned the first one around. He could feel Lydia and Malia watching him.

 _The Lovers_. Kate. The thought made his blood boil. Would they ever be rid of her?

Taking a deep breath, he turned the second card.

 _The Wheel of Fortune_. Fate.

Fine, he told himself, a feeling of dread coursing through him. It’s going to be fine.

Stiles finally turned the third card and his breath caught.

 _Death_.

He glanced at Lydia and saw her wince.

“Stiles…”

“No,” he whispered. The memory of Lydia typing Derek’s name on the computer keyboard was still so fresh in his memory he had to close his eyes a second to get back his bearing. “No.”

“Stiles, it doesn’t necessarily mean death,” Lydia said softly, trying to reassure him.

“Lydia,” he exclaimed, grabbing the card and shoving it in her face. “It literally says ‘death’! It’s written on it!”

“I know but the true meaning of the card is ‘change’. It doesn’t always mean literal death.” Stiles took his face in his hands. “I’m sorry,” he heard her whisper.

She tried taking his hand but Stiles jerked away.

“Are you guys hungry?” he suddenly asked, desperate for an excuse to get out of the room.

He made his way downstairs without even waiting for an answer. He did not want to see the looks of pity on their face.

Stiles woke up the next morning sandwiched between two beautiful girls. Sometime during the night, Malia had buried her face in his neck and he had wrapped his arms around Lydia’s waist. Stiles heard someone clearing their throat and snapped his head up. His father was leaning against the doorframe, staring at the scene with a raised eyebrow.

“It’s not what it looks like?” Stiles said.

His father gave him a look. “Really, Stiles? That’s what you’re going with?”

“I swear! Lydia had a feeling I was in danger and Malia followed her here.” His father simply kept staring. “I’m in love with Derek!” Stiles blurted out and immediately winced.

He had not meant to say that. Why had he said that?

His father sighed. “I’m not sure that’s much better, kiddo.”

“I know but at least you don’t have to worry about finding him in my bedroom! Or rather in my bed because he’s actually been in my bedroom a lot… Not that you’d know because he usually just climbs through the window like the huge creeper he is… but only when he needs a hand! With research, I mean! Completely platonic research! Oh god, someone shut me up now, please.”

Stiles felt Malia snorting against his neck and Lydia shaking beside him. Great, that meant both girls were awake and had witnessed his utter humiliation.

“I’m going to work,” his father simply said, turning around.

“Love you, Dad!” Stiles called after him.

“Love you too, kiddo.”

Lydia turned around and rested her chin on his chest, her red hair framing her pale face. “For such a smart guy you can be so dumb sometimes,” she simply said, rolling her eyes at him.

Stiles frowned and turned to Malia for support.

“Don’t look at me,” Malia told him at once. “I’m new at all this.”

Stiles sighed in defeat and got up, nearly making Lydia fall out of the bed. She glared at him.

“So, breakfast?” Malia suggested. “Then you can drive us to school.”

Stiles loved his friends dearly and he was infinitely grateful for the way they worried about him, but after spending a whole day with Malia tailing him, Stiles was at the end of his rope.

“Seriously, guys,” Stiles told Malia and Lydia at the end of the day. “I know you worry about me and I really appreciate it, but I need some air. I’m going to go check on my dad and bring him a healthy dinner and I’ll go straight home after that, alright?”

Lydia frowned. “I’m not sure, Stiles…”

“I’ll be surrounded by police officers, seriously, I’ll be fine.”

He should have known not to doubt Lydia’s weird sixth sense. Stiles had barely made it out of his car before getting clubbed in the back of the head and then everything turned black.


	10. Chapter 10

When Stiles finally came to, he realized he was sitting down against a wall, tied up in what seemed to be the back of the flower shop. He knew that Crystal girl was trouble. But nobody ever believed him.

“Fancy seeing you here,” he told Crystal, who was standing in front of him. Then, he turned to the guy beside her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”

“Come, on, Caleb,” Crystal said. “There’re six million dollars waiting for us.”

“I don’t think so,” Stiles told them. “You guys know my dad works just across the street, right? He’s the Sheriff, you know.”

Crystal glared at him. “Get on with it,” she told Caleb.

The man took a knife out of his boot and unsheathed it. Stiles glanced at the blade, and immediately recognized the gooey substance in which the blade had been coated.

“Is that wolfsbane?” he snorted. “You guys think I’m a freaking werewolf? Oh my god, this is gold! Like actually gold. I’m flattered guys, really, but do I look all growly to you? Seriously, dude. Cal, can I call you Cal?”

“No,” the man grunted.

“Cal, you seriously need to do your research, man.”

Crystal glared at him. “You talk too much,” she decided. She grabbed a roll of duct tape and cut off a large piece before smashed it against Stiles’s mouth with a satisfied smirk. “There, all better.”

Stiles groaned and trashed, trying to get rid of his bounds, to no avail.

Caleb hold up the knife to Stiles’s face and pressed the tip of the blade against Stiles’s cheek. “I wanted to have a bit of fun first but my sister here is all about work, work, work,” he told Stiles with a wink.

“Get on with it, Caleb,” Crystal told him. “Before the cops show up.”

“Too late,” Braeden said as she kicked down the door of the workshop.

Stiles’s jumped in surprise. The woman had her shotgun in hand, pointing it at Caleb while Derek pointed a gun to Crystal’s head.

The woman twitched. “Try it,” Derek challenged.

Stiles eyes went to the wolfsbane-coated knife in Caleb hands to Derek and panicked. He did not think. He only reacted. He felt a sudden wave of energy coursing through him and bursting out, rippling inside the room. The windows shattered and the knife went flying out onto the street while Crystal and Caleb were thrown against the opposite wall. Stiles barely registered the sound of the glass breaking. He stared at Derek and Braeden and at the guns in their hands.

“What is it with you and windows?” he heard the mercenary mumble.

Derek kneeled down in front of Stiles and ripped the duct tape off his face while Braeden made her way to the two unconscious assassins and touched Crystal’s face with the tip of her boot.

“The Twins,” she sighed. “Always on the lookout for the next job.”

“Wait, you know them?” Stiles asked, shocked.

“We teamed up on a few jobs back in the day. But we didn’t see eye to eye on certain things.”

“Like going from mercenaries to assassins?” Stiles asked. “But is there really a difference?”

Braeden’s eyes met his and he gulped. She did not look angry or even upset. She looked deadly.

“There is in my book,” she simply said.

Stiles turned to Derek. “Good thing your girlfriend knew about them,” Stiles pointed out.

“He told me about her because you told him,” Braeden explained.

Stiles remembered telling Scott about Crystal the night Derek had drove him home. So Derek really did listen to him after all.

“Derek,” Braeden called. She put her shotgun on the table. “Help me tie them up, we’ll drop them at the police station.”

“Oh man,” Stiles groaned. “My dad’s going to kill me.”

He could have sworn he saw Braeden smile but Stiles was feeling pretty out of it. He only noticed that Derek had been removing the ropes around him when he stopped feeling Derek’s hands against his skin.

“Come on,” Braeden said. “Before they wake up.”

Stiles stood up with a groan. “Thanks for the rescue, guys,” he said before promptly passing out.

Stiles woke up on the couch in his father’s living room, alone.

“How are you feeling?”

Stiles jumped in fright and turned around to glare at Derek, casually leaning against the doorframe of the kitchen.

“Dude! Are you trying to kill me?” Stiles exclaimed reproachfully.

Derek rolled his eyes and disappeared in the kitchen without a word. He came back a few seconds later with a steaming cup of tea and a chocolate bar. He put the cup on the table in front of Stiles and threw the candy at him. Stiles let it hit his chest with a thump. He raised trembling hands and managed to open the wrapper.

“What’s going on? Hey, did you find Anita? They didn’t do anything to her, right?” he asked.

Derek shook his head. “She’s fine, a bit shaken up though. They had her tied up in a closet,” he explained. “You passed out so I told your dad I’d take you home.” Stiles nodded.

“God, I’m probably grounded for life after this,” Stiles moaned.

Derek rolled his eyes. “You need to eat.”

Stiles took a bite and immediately groaned. “Man, I needed that.”

“Didn’t Deaton tell you not to use too much energy at once?” Derek scolded.

Stiles rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, but I barely did anything back there,” he said around a mouthful of chocolate.

“Stiles, that shop looked like a disaster zone. You need to be more careful.”

Stiles straightened his back, going on the defensive. “And _you_ need to think before just barging in. He had wolfsbane, Derek! Wolfsbane!”

“Stiles… I’m human now,” Derek sighed, looking defeated. “Wolfsbane can’t affect me anymore.”

Stiles sighed. How could he explain the fact that he could still _feel_ Derek’s energy just like he felt Scott’s, Liam’s or Malia’s? It was like Deaton had said, supernatural creatures had a special kind of energy, as unique as a fingerprint. Kira’s felt a bit different, almost like static in the air and Lydia’s felt more distant, almost like she had one foot into another world – which she did, in a way. Derek’s energy felt muted, distant, like hearing a sound under water or behind a thick wall and that was the reason why Stiles knew Kate had not turned Derek into a human. She could not have managed to change what he was. But there _was_ something blocking his energy.

“Well I’m not so sure about that, alright?” Stiles told him. “No, look,” he added when he caught sight of Derek’s skeptic look. “I know you think Kate somehow stole your power or abilities or whatever you want to call it but you _are_ a werewolf. Always have been. Always will be. No one can take that away from you. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this whole Deadpool mess is that you’re either human or a supernatural being. I’ll admit, it took me a while to accept it and I guess that bitten werewolves struggle with that concept a lot but you, you are a born werewolf, there’s no way Kate could have taken that away from you.”

Derek did not say a word. Both of them stayed silent as Stiles sipped his tea, enjoying the feeling of the hot beverage warming him up.

“Do you really believe that?” Derek finally asked.

Stiles turned his head towards him but Derek was looking out the window pensively. He looked – Stiles dared to say – almost vulnerable.

“I do, Derek. If anything, I’d say this is all in your head. I don’t want to go all Yoda on you but I think all the answers you need are inside of you.”

Derek nodded slowly.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hate the whole Derek/Braeden thing but I’m literally in love with that woman. Do you see my problem?  
> Anyway, here’s the last chapter folks. Thank you all so much for your comments and kudos.

Derek kept replaying his last conversation with Stiles over and over again. Sometimes he could not believe Stiles put so much faith in him. To be honest, Derek did not know what to do with Stiles’s trust. He knew he did not deserve it.

Braeden must have felt he needed some space. She had gone to the roof a couple hours ago and had let Derek brood in the living room on his own. She had been so good to him. Sometimes it felt like he did not deserve her either.

Derek felt the comforting weight of the stones Stiles had given him in his pocket. He took them out and dropped them in the palm of his hand, staring at them. He could add their latest encounter with Kate to the ever-growing list of times Stiles had saved his skin.

When had Derek started thinking of Stiles as the one to always have his back? Probably since that time Stiles had almost cut off Derek’s arm. It seemed so long ago, like another lifetime. So much had changed since then.

Derek might have been in denial about his feelings but he was not stupid. There was a reason Stiles had become his anchor along the way, a reason Derek did not want to – or rather, was not ready to – acknowledge yet. He doubted he would ever have the chance to fully accept it. He knew he had not much time left, not after what Kate had done to him. He could feel himself getting weaker and weaker, slipping away a little bit more everyday and he had made his peace with it, he truly had.

A loud knock on the door made him jump. It was in moments like these where he missed his earing and sense of smell the most. He grabbed a gun and pointed it at the door as he opened it.

Derek lowered the weapon as soon as he saw Lydia standing on the threshold. She did not wait for him to invite her inside and marched into the loft.

“Lydia,” he greeted. “What are you doing here?”

Lydia turned around sharply and stared right at him. For once, it seemed like she was fully aware of where she was. He was talking to Lydia, not the Banshee.

“I was worried Stiles would do something stupid,” she told him. “Like using all his energy to protect this place or something.”

Derek raised an eyebrow. “I haven’t seen him,” he informed her. “I’m pretty sure he has other concerns than my safety but it was nice of you to stop by.”

Lydia snorted. “Yeah right, like he hasn’t been doing tarot readings over and over again in the hope of getting a different result.” Derek frowned. “Look, can you do me a favor? Until we can sort out this whole Deadpool mess, could you try to be a little more careful? I don’t want Stiles to put himself in danger because he’s trying to protect you. He has enough on his plate already.”

“Lydia, you’ve got the wrong idea here,” Derek sighed. “I know you’re worried about him but this has nothing to do with me.”

“Nothing to do with you?” she asked in disbelief. “Are you kidding me? Derek, Stiles has given all of us protective stones but yours was the most powerful,” she pointed out. “Even the ones he gave Scott – his best friend – and his dad were not as powerful! Why do you think that is, huh? Take a wild guess.” Derek remained silent and Lydia huffed in annoyance. “He’s in love with you, you moron!” she exclaimed at last, throwing her arms up in the air. She looked a bit crazed. “I’m pretty sure he’d _die_ for you! And you! Have you ever thanked him for all the things he did in order to protect you?”

Derek glared at her. “I did,” he said through gritted teeth. “Don’t you dare lecture me on ignoring Stiles, Lydia. Don’t you _dare_ ,” he told her sharply. She glared at him. “My relationship with Stiles has nothing to do with you,” he pointed out.

“Do you really think you’ll be happy with Braeden?” she asked, ignoring what he had just said.

He glared at her but the girl did not even flinch. “That’s none of your business, Lydia.”

“It is when I have to watch one of my best friends suffer because you can’t be bothered to see what’s right in front of your eyes!”

“Lydia!”

“I don’t get it! I know you love him, I can see it and I don’t even need werewolf super powers to tell you that.”

Derek heard the stairs creaking and, judging by the look on Lydia’s face, she had heard it too. The girl slowly turned around.

“Braeden,” Lydia whispered when she saw the woman looking at them from the top of the stairs.

Derek had no idea how much Braeden had heard of their conversation, but judging by the look on her face, she had probably been there the whole time. She smiled softly at the girl, before making her way down.

“I’m going to go,” Lydia said, walking backward to the door. “I’m so sorry.”

She closed the door behind her with a clang and Derek and Braeden were left in silence.

“I’ve had an offer from a client in Brazil,” Braeden finally said, avoiding his gaze. “I’ve been meaning to accept it but I didn’t know how to tell you.”

“Braeden…” Derek tried.

“It’s fine, Derek,” she said, finally meeting his eyes. “I get it. The two of us… we were never meant to last. We’re just too different,” she said.

“I never meant to hurt you,” he told her sincerely.

She smiled at him softly. “I know. You’re a good person, Derek. And believe me when I say that it’s a pretty rare thing nowadays.”

She grabbed her duffle bag from under the bed. It was already made – or rather, it never had been emptied in the first place. Neither of them had been that serious about their relationship.

“You deserve someone who can love you with all their heart,” she told him. “Stiles has a big heart, I can tell.” Derek did not know what to say. “He loves you and it’s obvious you love him too. I’m not ready to open my heart to anyone and I’m not sure I’ll ever be but don’t miss your chance because you’re scared of getting hurt again.”

She kissed his cheek and left the loft without turning back.

Derek had no idea how much time he spent staring into nothingness. Not for the first time, he was at a loss. He had hit a wall in his life. He just kept losing everything that mattered to him in an endless cycle. Alpha, beta, omega, he thought bitterly. Truer words had never been spoken.

Then, he thought back on what Stiles had told him, how losing his mom was even worse now that he had realized what had been left unsaid between them, and Derek made his decision.

Derek grabbed his jacket and his car keys and made his way to the Stilinski household before he could change his mind.

“Derek,” the Sheriff said, surprised to find him on his doorstep. “At least you used the front door this time.” Derek frowned as the Sheriff waved him in. “Stiles! You’ve got a visitor!”

Stiles ran down the stairs and suddenly froze when he caught sight of Derek.

“Derek…” he said quietly.

“Oh hell,” he heard the Sheriff mumble beside him but Derek paid him no mind.

“The stone,” he croaked. “Lydia said… it was so powerful because… you… have feelings for me?” he managed to say, his eyes never leaving Stiles’s face.

Stiles opened his mouth but no sound came out.

“I’m out of here,” the Sheriff said, grabbing his jacket. “I’m going back to the office,” he told Stiles. “Text me when it’s safe to come back.”

Stiles sputtered. “Dad!” he exclaimed reproachfully.

The Sheriff chuckled and patted Derek’s shoulder comfortingly on his way out. “Good luck, son,” he told Derek.

“Oh, come on,” Stiles groaned.

The Sheriff closed the door behind him and for a few seconds the silence between them was deafening. Stiles was looking at him, waiting.

Derek took a step forward. “Stiles,” he started.

“Look, I’m sorry,” Stiles cut in, taking a step back. “It wasn’t on purpose, I swear, I-”

“You saved my life,” Derek said matter-of-factly.

Stiles blinked. “I did? Yes, yes, I did,” he nodded. “And you and Braeden saved my life so I think we’re even now. She’s totally badass by the way, I can see why you like her.”

Up until that point, Derek had not completely believed Lydia’s admission of Stiles’s feelings for him but seeing him now, so unsure, Derek’s doubts finally disappeared. He took another step forward and another until he could grab Stiles’s wrist and stop him from running away. Stiles dropped his gaze to the floor.

“Braeden and I decided to break things off. We weren’t right for each other,” he told him simply. Then, taking a deep breath, he added, “You told me once you wished your mom had told you the truth before it was too late. And I can’t bear the idea of doing that to you again.” Stiles finally met his eyes and gave him a questioning look. “So I had to tell you how I feel before it’s too late.”

“Fuck that,” Stiles exclaimed. “You’re _not_ going to die. Not on my watch.”

“What Kate did to me-”

“You’re not dying!” Stiles exclaimed resolutely.

Derek only nodded. “Okay,” he finally said.

Stiles exhaled. Then, he looked at Derek almost sheepishly and smiled. “So,” he started. “ _How_ do you feel about me exactly?” he asked.

Derek rolled his eyes. “How do you think?”

Instead of answering, Stiles threw his arms around Derek’s neck and kissed him eagerly.

“God, I can’t believe this is real,” Stiles whispered against his lips.

Derek nodded, and kissed Stiles again instead of answering. He trailed gentle kisses along Stiles’s jaw.

“I’m buying Lydia a car or something,” Stiles told him.

Derek groaned in annoyance. “Could you maybe refrain from talking about Lydia right now?” he asked almost petulantly.

Stiles smirked. “Dude, no way, are you jea-”

Derek brushed his lips against Stiles’s neck, drawing out a quiet moan.

“We can’t kiss if you keep talking,” Derek pointed out.

“I’m not talking. Who’s talking? Nobody’s talking.”

“Like you can go five seconds without opening your mouth,” Derek teased.

Stiles frowned. “I mean, I could,” he said in a small voice and Derek immediately felt horrible about it.

“Hey,” he said, putting his hand under Stiles’s chin and meeting his gaze. “Don’t, please.”

“You actually like the fact that I run my mouth, don’t you?” Stiles smirked and Derek sighed in defeat. “It’s okay, I won’t tease you about it… much.”

Then, he grabbed the hem of Derek’s shirt and crashed their lips together almost painfully, climbing the stairs backward as they kept kissing.

The sunlight coming through the window was bathing Stiles’s bedroom in a gentle light. Stiles smiled contently as he gently ran his fingertips over Derek’s back, tracing the outline of the triskelion almost reverently. He heard Derek stir beside him.

“What are you doing?” Derek mumbled without turning around, his head still resting on the pillow.

“Did you know that the triskelion represents balance?”

“Yeah, I know,” Derek told him quietly. Stiles could not see his face but he was pretty sure Derek’s eyes were still closed.

“So?”

“So what?”

“Did you find it?” Stiles asked. “Balance, I mean.”

Derek rolled around to face him. He did not seem annoyed by Stiles’ question. If anything, he looked fond. He took Stiles by surprise by gently grabbing his hand and tracing the outline of each finger slowly.

“You know,” Derek told him softly. “I think I did.” Stiles looked up from their joined hands and met his eyes, a question already forming on the tip of his tongue. “The day Kate took me,” he started and Stiles bit his lower lip to keep himself from interrupting. “She came to the loft, took me by surprise. She… shot me. And something weird happened. I was suddenly sitting in the locker room, talking to _you_. And for the first time in a very long time I felt… grounded. I told you about the attack. At the time I actually thought the attack had just been a dream but the thing was, I didn’t remember waking up. So I asked you… how do you know you’re still dreaming and you said-”

“Fingers,” Stiles finished for him. “In dreams, you have extra fingers.”

Derek nodded slowly, looking down at their joined hands. “I came to and realized that Kate was real and that our conversation had been a dream.” For once in his life, Stiles was completely speechless. “You’ve been… helping me for so long. I think in a way my subconscious was trying to tell me something.”

“That I’m great at advice?” Stiles asked, smiling cheekily.

“That you calm me down,” Derek told him seriously. “Even if I still want to rip your throat out most of the time.”

Stiles burst out laughing, burying his face in Derek’s chest. “Dude, it’s way too early for that kind of serious talk. Seriously, not so long ago I thought you hated me and now you’re saying that I’m- what? Your anchor or something?”

Derek frowned, sitting up. “Wait, you must have known I care about you, right? Stiles?”

Stiles made a face. “Kind of? I mean I knew you cared… but more in a ‘I have to save that dumb kid again’ kind of way, not in a ‘I want to lick your face’ kind of way.”

Derek actually snorted at that. “You’re ridiculous,” he said before lying back down.

Stiles beamed at the man. He knew he must have looked ridiculous but he did not care at the moment. Derek wrapped a hand around Stiles’s wrist and tugged until Stiles was lying down with his head on Derek’s chest. Then, Stiles closed his eyes, listening to the steady beat of Derek’s heart.

THE END


End file.
